Bitter-sweet trip

This has been in my drafts for a little while now... thought I'd get it up before too much longer haha

We decided to make a trip to Ohio on April 10

The reason... my Aunt passed away. She had been fighting breast cancer for over three years. She fought a good and brave fight.

I did not realize until we were at her celebration of life service just how phenomenal this woman was. I knew that she always said that she didn't have time to be sick, but from what people have said about her, ....Wow!

When I was growing up, visits were few and far between, but I remember her very fondly! I spent summers with my Dad and his family and spent some time in OH with her and my Uncle and cousins. I remember feeling very much at home when I was there. It was refreshing.






So our trip was to remember her. Keep her husband and kids in your thoughts and prayers as they adjust to a 'new normal' without this wonderful woman. I will miss her.

BUT, we did get to see some family that we don't get to see very often. That was really nice!

My Grandma

Aunt Nancy

Uncle Richard

Holly did remarkably well on the four hour trip... all things considered... we did stop once each way to feed her and so Faith and Meg could get out and run around. We are contemplating a trip to CT this summer to see family up there (it was an 8 hr drive last year while pg)... so after this last weekend I think it may be do-able with a few stops.

Holly's four month appointment was Monday the 19, I was quite anxious to hear how much she weighs. LOL I have quite the big girl already :) ...and her stats are: 14lbs 12oz, 25.25" long and a head circumference of 41.5 cm. She's bigger then her sisters were at this point, I am thinking that she may have to move into the next sized clothing (from 3-6 month to 6-9 month) sooner then her mommy wants. :) (as a side note... Megan wore 6-9 month clothing till she was 15 months
...haha)

A Raggity Ann from Butterfly Grandma, she loves it!

Four Month Pictures

Totally Faith's idea! cute :)

And a couple of funny pictures...

the morning hair doo :)

...and the fallen bow

A long and overdue update

So I’ve been told that I need to update this thing. And I have said it myself, that it has been way too long since I posted anything… so in an attempt to bring this up to date I will run though what has happened since Aug...

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In September all four of us (plus the one in the belly) ventured to the state of Connecticut once again for my cousin Rachel’s wedding. The event was fabulous! The girls LOVED being flower girls and I have to admit I didn’t look too different from the rest of the bridesmaids... save for the huge belly. You can view some of our pictures form that weekend HERE. The first ones are from the aquarium that is close to where the wedding was (Mystic).

The most adventurous part of the whole weekend, though, was NOT wedding related. We had just checked into our hotel and I had decided that I was hungry and wanted to find food... and there was a little issue of we still needed to get the happy couple a gift (oops). So we ventured to a nearby mall. As I was trying to pull into a parking spot, we heard an ominous CrUnCh! Upon investigation, we saw that our front driver side tire was perpendicular to the rest of the van. After many tears and phone calls and some time in the food court and some incredible acts of God (no lie – too many to list, but some include: my aunts AAA covering the tow, and the security guard being incredibly helpful and offering more help), the van was towed to the opposite side of the mall where there was a SEARS auto center. So after spending the next day (Saturday) squished into the rental car of the Maid of Honor (she definitely earned her title...), finding out what we had broken (at this moment I can’t recall...), and paying WAY too much for it, we got our van back :) and it seems to be working fine now.

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Also in September, Faith Started Kindergarten...

Mom sent the outfits for the girls, they looked cute wearing the same thing :)

... and we went to the baby shower of a friend that I used to work with at the restaurant...

Lark, Shiela (pregnant with Marissa), me (about 27 weeks)

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In October we celebrated Megan turning four! I still can’t believe that she is that old. Grandpa came to visit and she had a very quaint (just the five of us) “party” at Friendly’s (one of our favorite restaurants! ... and I may have a job there when I am ready to go back to work LOL). Here are a few pictures from that.

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There was “trunk-or-Treat” at church, the day after Megan’s birthday. I had never experienced anything like this, but it was a lot of fun and the girls are still working on candy from the event. If you’ve never heard of such a thing... what it is, is people from the church take their vehicles (at the church) and decorate them with a theme and hand out candy from their car. So all we had to do was walk around the church parking lot like we were trick-or-treating. Like I said, lots of fun... here are a few pictures of some of the vehicles:

nativity scene

"I Love Lucy" doing Vitametavegimin :) (One of my fav's)

Mater (from the movie 'Cars') - this was one of my favorite cars

the big fish from the account of Jonah :)

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In November, (or slightly before) we started getting calls from the preschool that Faith went to (Head Start) that we thought Megan was going to just go to next year... Well a state budget finally passed (one of the reasons she wouldn’t have gone this year) and because most of the already four year olds had found a different preschool to attend, there was room for Megan. So In Nov, she started preschool!

Some pictures from her first day:

I did not realize till just now that she wore the same thing on the first day of Faith's school...

With Miss Dale during school

outside on the playground.

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Over the last few months I have done some sewing beyond baby doll clothing, so here are some of my recent creations

a shirt for me (non maternity pattern, but it fits right now :))

A dress for Megan's birthday

Christmas gift for Steve's cousin

I have a few more things in the works, I just have to actually pull out the sewing machine and put it away every time I want to sew now, because where I had the machine before was where we needed to put the Christmas tree. I will gladly move stuff for that. I love our tree


...and we even have one outside with a small train village

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On the baby front...

I have reached 38 weeks plus... I am VERY uncomfortable! This is the longest I have ever been pregnant for... it is also the first time we have made it to the month I am due in (Faith was due in April born in March and Megan was due in Nov born in Oct)

My last couple of OB appointments have proved to be very interesting. At my 36 week apt (35w6d) they did the group B strep test that is done every pregnancy. It came back negative :). And they checked me and I was 2-3 cm dilated already. The next week’s apt I was at still at 3cm 80% effaced. At my 38 week apt I was at 4cm. With Megan, at 38 weeks I was 6cm before I knew anything, and wasn’t feeling any contractions (in AZ they went ahead and induced me then). This OB has said that they don’t do anything to speed labor along till 39 weeks (I think that wold be this next apt tomorrow at 38w5d), but I am becoming very impatient. I can feel a few contractions, but I have a high pain threshold and only feel them when they are strong (they are not very painful yet though).

I did wake up this morning to what felt like menstrual cramp pain, but it was continuous and didn’t correlate to any of the contractions that I was feeling... I thought I was going to be calling the OB, but the contrax have fizzled out and I am just feeling a dull pain now... hopefully something happens really soon. Another apt is scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday).

Here are a few of may last belly pictures:

30 weeks

33 weeks

34 weeks

36 weeks

I am hoping my last one... 38 weeks

Trip to Connecticut

I'd love to wait to post this til I get some of the pictures from this weekend, but if I don't at least write about it now, it will be lost to the quickly shrinking brain cells that hang out in this pregnant woman's head.

SO Friday morning bright and early... aka 9AM... Faith, Meg and I set out in the van for the state of Connecticut. Two pit stops (one of which was the Blue Colony Diner - a frequent stop/pick-up drop-off place for us when we were kids... what memories it brought back!), lunch and nine hours later we arrived at Aunt Marge and Uncle Barts house (which is an awesome house! and a different paragraph). Aunt Marge was there and helped up get our things unloaded from the van ....and introduced us to Mayzie, the puppy who has never seen little kids, was super bouncy because of this, and is wearing a 'cone of shame' (due to a scratched eye ball) LOL. We then went to dinner with Aunt Marge... the first place that she wanted to go to was 'closed' for a couple of weeks, so we went somewhere else, it was yum! Faith and Megan wanted to sit outside, until they realized that we weren't going to be under an umbrella AND it was a bit breezy, so we moved inside.

We were put-up (so to speak) in the basement apartment of their house. The girls just LOVED this little apartment in the back of the basement. It has a little 'living room' a separate bed room and a separate bathroom, with a kitchenette off the of the living room. It is rather cool! I had the girls sleep in the bedroom in the single bed together, so that I could close the door for them. Turns out that I should have slept in that room instead.. We had to keep their door open a crack (read: a foot) and the bathroom light on all night with that door open a crack, just so that these girls who are used to what I call 'the light of day night light' could sleep. I am so thankful that I brought my sleep mask!

The rest of the house is amazing! I don't know if I could do it justice trying to describe it.. a formal living room, kitchen with an island, dining room, family room, bathroom, and sewing room on the main floor... two bedrooms and a master bedroom with a bathroom (that's accessible from the hall as well) upstairs... in the basement, besides the mini apartment there is Uncle Bart's 'office.' I think what I love most about their house, though, is the garden! They have a HUGE yard that looks to be GREAT for any sort of garden.. the downfall they found shortly after moving there, is that the soil, really isn't... it's all rocky. So... the solution?... POTS, huge pots! Their garden is full of potted plants. It's great! I think I have a picture, and when I get them developed, I'll add them...

Friday night, Uncle Bart set up a 'firework' show for us. This is the point where I wish I had my camera back form Canon! In CT fireworks are legal, IF they are what are called 'sparklers,' Much like what you can hold in your hand, but crowd sized... aka stand back! They are cool, no big boom in the air, but more than hand held.

Saturday, the girls and I headed over to Rachel's house. From there we followed her to where the rest of the bridal party was being fitted for alterations with their bridesmaid dresses. All I can say is COOL! You'll have to wait till September to see what they look like, as I didn't get a picture... but I think we are going to be a nice looking group of people (yes there is one male in the bridal party, but it's Rach's second dad, so it's all good... unfortunately he wasn't there). As a side note... MY dress wont be in till early Aug.. it's a good thing I am doing my own alterations... While we were there, Rach measured the girls' heads for wreath type things for the wedding... Faith has a head that is slightly less then 20" around... while Megan has a head that is 20 1/2" inches around... go figure :) we though it was funny.

After the fittings, we all headed over to AM/UB's (that's Aunt Marge's and Uncle Bart's) for lunch and to get ready for the Bridal Shower (the whole reason we went to CT). The Shower was a lot of fun! The girls go to be big helpers and give the gifts to Rach. I 'got' to create the bouquet of bows that Rach will use during the rehearsal. It was fun (I think I even have a picture...). After the party wound down and all the people (most of whom I hadn't met before Sat) left, Faith wanted to go for a walk... so Aunt Marge hooked Mayzie to her leash, took off the cone, and we all headed out for a walk around the neighborhood... about 1 mile... I carried Megan a little as it was partly up hill (I know I shouldn't have, but I was sick of hearing her whining about walking... and besides her little legs can't go very fast). After our walk, we had dinner while watching "Robots," the girls LOVE that movie, and yet it's one we DON'T own (surprising, if you've ever seen our collection). Megan had an absolute breakdown when the movie ended, and didn't really want to go to bed... or do anything... she was just SO tired!

Sunday morning, we got a much later start then we did on Friday, but it was OK. We ate breakfast, and I let the girls have a last 'run' (throwing the ball to her) with Mayzie (they grew to be fairly comfortable with her, so long as Mayzie was held by an adult, or in her cage (aka bedroom)), because I knew that we'd be driving again all day. So another two pit-stops, lunch and nine hours later we came home to hot pizza, and a cool 'welcome home' sign made by Steve (it was the same sign I came home to after LPL that he made with the girls, but he added Faith and Megan's names). He even brought everything in from the van for us (isn't he awesome!!?)!

When I get the pictures developed off the disposable film camera, I will be defiantly adding them to this post, so stay tuned!

As a side note to all this... I did have a Dr apt on Thursday. It was a super quick one... weight, blood pressure, telling me to stop often while driving and listen to the heart beat, which was in the 140's again... AND scheduling of the BIG anatomy scan, when they measure all the baby's body parts and look to see if we can tell gender. ONE WEEK is all we have/had to wait (It's Thursday the 16th... tomorrow)!! Whoo hoo! I also went ahead and did the AFP blood test ( it 'helps the doctor estimate the chance that the baby may have certain problems or birth defects.')... and a test for Cystic Fibrosis... hey I was there... Other then that, no real changes here on the pregancy front.

Visitors of 2008

We have been so blessed this year with family being able to come and visit us… and the occasional trip to visit them! In May my mom came a stayed for a month while her friend was visiting her newest grandchild. We had so much fun!
This picture is from where I work, it's called Eat'n Park and the smiley cookie is what we are known for. The 'mascot' was there during our 'Beach Party' If you ever come to visit, we'll take you, it's exclusively in PA, OH and WV.

In November Steve’s mom got to come and visit us. She didn’t get to stay as long, but her trip here was great too. We got to spend Thanksgiving with Susan.

Waiting for Grandmum to come on the train, It was cold!

We had a bit of Christmas while Grandmum was here!

Just a few days after Susan left, my ‘sister’ Rebecca came to visit for a few days.


We have also had my dad come to visit us frequently. He has come on both the girls’ birthdays, once in the summer to take us to a baseball game, and is planning to come this weekend (for Christmas)
This is my dad's car, it's a smart car for two. He gets about 40 MPG

We have also had the privilege of going to Ohio for my cousin’s wedding this summer. That was a blast.
Kim (my cousin) and Michael

My Aunt Jan and Uncle Gary (Kim's mom and dad)My Aunt Marge and Megan and Faith, the girls had so much fun!

One more picture, because it was a journey, one that we are still on. The grieving process is lifelong, and I (I think Steve too...) hope to have another child someday soonish...This one is of our precious Corine less then a week before she passed away.


I am thankful for so much this year, despite our loss. I just wanted to get this started and am hopeful I can keep up with our lives here and give our loved ones a glimpse of how we are doing.